Wednesday, August 19 If you were at the at Current in April, you were among the first to experience the lounge’s new (and, at
the time, unfinished) back deck. Drop by tonight to check out the progress — paint! furniture! — and Current’s new Wednesday happy hour, which features an open bar from 6 to 7, a selection of drink specials from 7 to 8, and sushi discounts all night. Thursday, August 20 A pair of local acts who have studied the finer points of songcraft celebrate the release of new albums tonight at the . Vandaveer is the alias for Mark Charles Heidinger, an old-school voice-and-acoustic-guitar troubadour who always seems to be on the road. (Month long tours of the U.S. and Europe follow this gig.) “Divide & Conquer” is filled with tasteful, mostly unadorned tunes with warm vocals and melodies. Openers Roofwalkers work with a similarly mellow sound, albeit one with a bit more bite. Songs such as “Chin Music” and “Northern Spy,” from the band’s self-titled album, recall indie rock classicists Yo La Tengo. Before modern bands revisited the multilayered, driving polyrhythmic sounds of Afrobeat, Rich Medina was the chief catalyst behind the revival of Fela Kut’a worki. A studious record collector and seasoned party rocker, Medina has used his traveling party to immerse party people in Kuti’s mélange of American funk and Nigerian juju music. A weaver and connector, Medina turns his party into a narrative that links West African beats with b-boy soul classics and even house. His parties are joyous, sweaty affairs, so they’re fitting tributes to Kuti, who mixed the spiritual and the sensual at performances that lasted from sundown to sun-up. Rich Medina celebrates 8 years of Jump N Funk this Saturday at Liv. are just showing off now. First the local punk band established itself as the city’s most explosive live act, bringing a taste of danger and chaos to an increasingly staid scene. Then the group somehow captured its vitality on last year’s self-titled album, a collection of brash, buzz-saw anthems that proved there were great songs to go with the moshing and beer-spitting. Tonight’s show at DC9 celebrates the release of the band’s new 7″ featuring the song “Shout,” which marks a new pinnacle for the Points. It stretches to almost six minutes, shifting from a hyperspeed blitz to a slab of pummeling drone rock. It slays. Once upon a time, the empty building next to held an awesome little neighborhood dive called Kingpin. Cool tunes, laid-back vibe, Atari 2600 console at one end of the bar. Then it burned down. The guys who used to spin hip-hop, go-go, reggae and soul at Kingpin have kept busy though, spinning around town as the Kingpin Soundsystem. They’re back on the block tonight in the Velvet Lounge’s bar, where they’ll be creating a funky vibe from 9 to 2. There’s no cover. The Entrance Band plays apocalyptic psych-rock that is so good it will make you welcome the end days with open arms. Guy Blakeslee fronts the band and sings with the proper amount of wailing and howling on songs such as “Grim Reaper Blues,” “Valium Blues” and “Lost in the Dark” as the guitars menacingly swirl in the background and the drums echo the sound of the four horsemen. The band’s upcoming album on Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label (perhaps you caught them opening for Sonic Youth at 9:30 club last month) promises to be one of the year’s scariest. In a good way, of course. The Entrance Band opens for the even heavier at the Black Cat. — Fritz Hahn, David Malitz and Rhome Anderson
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